After polling all golf coaches in the division, it was announced last week that Oglethorpe University men’s golf coach Jim Owen was named 2008 SCAC Men’s Golf Coach of the Year. The 2008 award marked the ninth time Owen has earned the honor in the last 11 years. He now joins a short list of SCAC coaches to have won nine or more COTY honors in the same sport. Thanks to his great coaching, the Petrels won their league-high seventh SCAC men’s golf title at this year’s Spring Sports Festival and went on to place sixth at the 2008 NCAA Division III men’s championships. Owen is the brother-in-law of Georgia State announcer and Score Atlanta writer Dave Cohen.
The Olympics began last week and it didn’t take long for a Georgia athlete to contribute to the American medal count. On Saturday, Dunwoody native Sada Jacobsen earned the silver medal in the women’s individual saber final. Jacobsen lost 15-8 to fellow American Mariel Zagunis, who also won gold at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Jacobsen took home the bronze four years ago. An American also took home the bronze in this year’s individual saber competition, making it a U.S. sweep.
After conquering the world by defeating a team from Japan in last year’s Little League World Series, the All-Stars from Warner Robins found themselves eliminated from contention last Wednesday. In thrilling fashion, WWLL fell 16-14 to Alabama in Gulfport, Fla. Trailing 11-5 and down to their final out with no one on base, the central Georgia team exploded for nine runs, giving themselves a 14-11 lead. Yet, three Alabama homers in the next inning ended an improbable comeback as well as Warner Robins’ hopes for a repeat. The loss came in the Southeast Regional semifinal. The team was only two wins away from making another trip to Williamsport, Penn.
GAMEDAY COMING
If Clemson and Alabama coming to the Georgia Dome to start the college season wasn’t exciting enough, the game just got a big-time boost, as it was announced last week that ESPN’S College GameDay will be in town for the action. The college-football highlight show will broadcast from Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park on Aug. 30. The game itself will be televised on ABC.
The U.S. Golf Association, for the first time in 80 years, mandated an equipment scale back on Tuesday of last week. The new rule will reduce the size and shape of the grooves in club heads by 2010. In their current form, the deeper, sharper grooves on irons allow the elite players to control their shots out of deep rough with great accuracy, which has reduced the importance of driving accuracy. The rule change will thus put a new premium on consistently hitting fairways.
INJURY UPDATES
In other college-football news, it was announced last week that Auburn defensive back Aairon Savage will miss the entire 2008 season after undergoing knee surgery. Savage, a junior from Albany, Ga., started at safety for the Tigers last season and finished the year with 26 tackles. According to Savage’s brother, the player dislocated his kneecap and tore his ACL and MCL in last Monday’s practice. As a result of the injury, Savage is eligible to receive a medical redshirt and could return in 2009 with two years of eligibility remaining. In other Tiger news, former Carver-Columbus standout quarterback DeRon Furr has left the program. Furr enrolled at Auburn last January, but became disgruntled after multiple position changes. His next football destination was not known at press time.
Falcons rookie linebacker Robert James will also be forced to miss the entire upcoming season due to lingering symptoms from a prior concussion. After a specialist determined he was not recovering from the concussion as well as expected, the Falcons waived the fifth-round draft pick from Arizona State. The news is particularly significant considering all the recent publicity concussions in football have received. Recent studies have linked such head trauma to depression and other mental illnesses in former NFL players.
Janovitz can be reached at sjanovitz@scoreatl.com.
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